In the United States, Juan Espinoza is investigated for money laundering in Petroecuador case

He is also charged with the same crime in Panama and now he awaits the trial hearing.

Ecuadorian Juan Espinoza, partner of Frank Chatburn, accepted his guilt before the United States authorities for attempted money laundering in that country, in the case related to Petroecuador’s bribe scheme.

Although the details of his confession are not yet known, with him there are already 13 people prosecuted in the United States for money laundering and corruption in the state oil company.

This case started on September 26, 2019 in Miami, when the Prosecutor’s Office presented information and an order of embargo against Espinoza, who accepted his guilt at the end of October.

The citizen would have participated in an attempt to launder assets between April 2014 and January 2015.

In Miami, Espinoza is the representative of JSEC LLC, registered in September 2014 and whose agent was Frank Chatburn until 2018. The company remains active.

In Guayaquil I had two companies with Chatburn: Galacredi S.A. y Cobranzas Eficiente S.A. Copper The latter was the shareholder of Murfield Investment Trading Corp., a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands by the Mossack Fonseca study and whose documents are part of the so-called Panama Papers.

The Office of the Prosecutor of Panama would have discovered that the company Murfield Investment paid USD 1.22 million to Álex Bravo, former manager of Petroecuador, and USD 606,000 to Juan Baquerizo, the oil contractor for his company Oil Services & Solutions OSS.

Espinoza is accused of money laundering in Panama because the payments were made there. He is one of the 22 people cited in the process that is followed there by the bribery scheme in Petroecuador, along with Bravo and Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli.

Last week, a Criminal Court of Panama reactivated the process and is expected to convene the hearing of charges.